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Lawn or soil problem?

I have a tall fescue type lawn (marathon sod) its supposed to stay green year round. Right now (early spring) it looks great. over the last few years, as soon as the warm summer temperature rises the lawn starts to yellow and brown out. Then as soon as fall set in the lawn seems to perk up and turns to a nice lush lawn again. I thought summer was the best time for this type of lawn.

I have tried aerating the soil and fertilizing regularly. I do seem to have problems with soil compaction. I'm getting frustrated that fertilizing and aerating does not seem to help. What am i doing wrong? Apprecate any tips or suggestions.

Re: Lawn or soil problem?

Thanks for the tip dj...im in So. California.

I'm just baffled.......after trying such things as aerating, fertilizing and watering regularly...im getting a lawn that appears to be dying. Then when the summer months are over and the heat subside, by late September around here, the lawn then seem to come alive again and green uo realy nice. In he past i have dug up spot of the lawn and found the soil to be very hard and water does seem to soak in well.

Re: Lawn or soil problem?

Thanks again for the repsonse. I have neighbors and seen lots of lawns with this type of lawn doing very well during the summer months.

I found some info ****** talking about "hydrophobic" soil that does not absorb water, but rather repels water. I have seen this in my lawn. Once I dug up some of the sod and saw the soil did not absorb the water. The water seemed to bead on the soil until i physically mixed it into the soil.

It seems the soil is my problem, i'm just not sure what remedy to use. I really don't want to tear up lawn.